At the moment there is no game wide chat system. I think it could really help with the community if we there was a subspace channel that was linked to IRC. It could be used for system administration announcements such as LIVE STREAM or server maintenance etc. With it being linked to IRC those of that are not able to access the game during work could still connect to IRC possibly and keep chatting ED.
Subspace IRC chat
- Thread starter buffy
- Start date
Yes, the chat system is severely lacking and I'm hoping FD sort such a common feature out sooner rather than later.
We need more channels to talk in, like system(talk to all ships, in all instances in your system), faction(anyone alligned with you faction), global(everyone in your game mode), support(everyone looking for or offering help).
Plus direct, local, and wing.
I wouldn't even mind if the comms panel only allowed a maximum of 3 channels, but only show one at a time. (As to not waste screen space)
Tabbing between them wouldn't be hard.
We need more channels to talk in, like system(talk to all ships, in all instances in your system), faction(anyone alligned with you faction), global(everyone in your game mode), support(everyone looking for or offering help).
Plus direct, local, and wing.
I wouldn't even mind if the comms panel only allowed a maximum of 3 channels, but only show one at a time. (As to not waste screen space)
Tabbing between them wouldn't be hard.
I will agree on this. It makes no sense that our ability to talk to other commanders is so limited
I didn't think that there is faster-than-light communication in the Elite universe, other than messages carried by ships. Although this is stretched somewhat for sensors in supercruise (for practical game reasons).
Messages can be propagated through known space if each ship exchanges a blob of data with the Nav Beacons on entry, and with Stations on docking. Information would propagate quite rapidly this way - but not real-time bidirectional comms.
If we did have faster-than-light / intersellar comms, then things like first-discovery claims would not require a return-to-station.
Messages can be propagated through known space if each ship exchanges a blob of data with the Nav Beacons on entry, and with Stations on docking. Information would propagate quite rapidly this way - but not real-time bidirectional comms.
If we did have faster-than-light / intersellar comms, then things like first-discovery claims would not require a return-to-station.
FTL comms aren't so hard to conceptualize if you work a little sci fi magic and just say it's done through quantum entanglement. There's even a name for FTL communications in various science fiction stories: the ansible.
I figure in the 3300's ansibles are part of the standard communications system on every ship.
As for in game comms, they need work. Big time. They're unreliable and I have serious issues talking with people I know are in game, active, and looking at their comm screens. Messages frequently just don't go through and there is no explanation for it. I'd kind of like it if communicating with other players was more stable and easier than it is.
I figure in the 3300's ansibles are part of the standard communications system on every ship.
As for in game comms, they need work. Big time. They're unreliable and I have serious issues talking with people I know are in game, active, and looking at their comm screens. Messages frequently just don't go through and there is no explanation for it. I'd kind of like it if communicating with other players was more stable and easier than it is.
It has to be presumed, or the Kill Warrant Scanner makes no sense. You get updates on people from places you may never have been. As a starting player, I had .5 MCr in bounties for the Empire before I ever got to Imperial space.
That can be explained through an automatic data dump to/from Nav Beacons or Stations.
When a ship arrives in a system, it links with the nearby Nav Beacon and they synchronise various databases which can include warrent information. Given the rate at which NPC ships appear, new information will be spread throughout known space pretty quickly.
There will be edge-cases - someone returning from deep space encounters a pirate before reaching known space will still get recent warrent information (AFAIK) - which can be treated as a practical implementation limit. However this could be "fixed" by recording timestamps against information and for the last-sync - the problem then is that you have to keep outdated data alive undefinitely.
Quantum entangled particles would only provide comms between predetermined, not arbitary, end-points. It's analogous to two tin cans and a piece of string. Sure you could build up a network across which messages would be relayed, and it would then explain your relationship to your last port of call.
The only thing I see in the game which requires superluminal information are sensors and comms when in super cruise - which, as I mentioned above, are practical compromises for the game (and could be fudged with SC-physics).
Frankly though, restricting to non-FTL comms has more interesting consequences than allowing f ree FTL comms across the universe.
As for the OP - Player groups can set up team speak groups themselves, without the involvement of Frontier. So why would Frontier spend effort here when they have plenty to do already?
Across 3 super-polities, and the gods only know how many minor ones??! Sorry, my suspension of disbelief isn't up to buying that, especially when there is not a universality of Nav Beacons.
I could see it if you had something similar to Traveller's X-Boat Network in operation, but, even there, you'd need it to be apolitical and universal.
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It is true that if Quantum Entanglement is perfected then there will be real time subspace comms. and you would think that by the time FTL travel is available that QE would have been developed. It is more realistic than ships being able to travel faster than light to be honest.